India’s NMDC records 18% y-o-y rise in iron ore production in February

Published by: Alice Li<>
5 Mar 2025 @ 10:02 UTC

India’s largest iron ore producer National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) posted a 17.85% year-on-year rise in its iron ore production in February 2025, totaling 4.62 million tonnes, the company announced on Saturday March 1.

However, the company’s iron ore sales declined slightly to 3.98 million tonnes in February, compared with 3.99 million tonnes in February 2024.
Iron ore production in NMDC totaled about 40.49 million tonnes from April 2024 to February 2025, reflecting a slight year-on-year increase of 0.62% from 40.24 million tonnes, while sales for the same period stood at 40.20 million tonnes, down by 0.69% year-on-year from 40.48 million tonnes.
NMDC presently produces roughly 35 million tonnes of iron ore per year from 3 fully mechanized mines, two located in Chhattisgarh and one in Karnataka.
As of December 2024, the government of India held a 60.79% stake in the firm.
NMDC has been expanding cooperation with local pellet producers and steel mills in 2025 to maintain the market share in the iron ore industry, sources said.
In January, the Indian Steel Ministry proposed a merger between NMDC and pellet producer KIOCL Limited, which could build a sustainable supply chain of iron ore to produce pellet for India’s domestic and export markets.
NMDC also signed a long-term contract with the government-owned steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), to supply iron ore materials, despite the latter lacking captive mines, company sources said on Friday February 28.
An India-based trader said after Chinese Lunar New Year over January 28 to February 4, some Indian traders and miners are more active to export low-grade fines with 54-57% Fe and some pellets with 62.5-63% Fe to China’s market when the export prices are much higher than domestic market.
On January 9, NMDC announced a reduction in the prices of iron ore lumps and fines. Prices for iron ore lumps and fines were reduced by 350 rupees ($4), with those for lump reduced to 6,000 rupees per tonne, while those for fines were reduced to 5,060 rupeess per tonne from the previous notice on October 23.
Fastmarkets’ daily index for Iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao, averaged $106.61 in February, up by 5.09% or $5.44 per tonne from January’s $101.17 per tonne.
But a few private Indian pellet producers reduced exports due to low prices in China in previous months, while KIOCL’s production and export gradually increased compared with late 2024 given the sustainable supply of raw materials from NMDC, sources told Fastmarkets.